This Is What My War Looks Like
by kenziescott54
Summary: Have you ever wondered what everyone else was thinking? Civil War, written from everyone's perspective except Steve and Tony, because everyone's story deserves to be told, and everyone's voice should be heard.
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Marvel or any of its characters.**

* * *

 **Sam - After Lagos**

* * *

The four Avengers are silent on their ride back to the U.S. Natasha's flying the Quinjet, and Sam, Wanda and Steve are strapped in behind her.

Wanda studies the floor, her hands folded firmly in her lap. What she does with her hands, Sam's noticed, is indicative of her moods (It's really strange what you notice when you spend hours in a Quinjet with someone; after consecutive hours spent flying around with the other Avengers, Sam's learned to read them pretty well). When she's relaxed or happy, they're always in motion, and he can see the red glow that means she's playing with her rather vaguely defined powers. When she is stressed or upset, they are always completely still.

He wonders how she Wanda will ultimately react to what happened. She's young, she has not been fighting on the team for very long, and she's the only current Avenger aside from Vision who had no previous experience fighting before joining the Avengers - and Vision likes to stay out of fights, if he can. Sam's pretty sure that this is her first time seeing collateral damage first-hand, with the exception of Sokovia, most of which she was not responsible for at all. This time, she pretty much caused the deaths of those people in Lagos, and she doesn't seem to be dealing with it well. He knows she's always been worried about making mistakes.

Steve hasn't even tried to speak to her. Over the past year, he's been instrumental in helping Wanda learn how to understand and curb her power - not because Steve himself understands it, but because he understands feeling lost. At least, that's what he's told Sam, although Sam hasn't seen and can't envision a time when Cap didn't know exactly where his moral compass was pointing and wasn't following it.

At the moment, Steve is also unresponsive. Sam didn't hear the entire conversation between Steve and Rumlow, but he knows that Barnes was mentioned. Lately the search for that particular person has grown completely cold; Steve refuses to give up, but Sam's convinced they'll never find the guy. He's begun to think that maybe Barnes is dead, whether by his own hand or someone else's. If he isn't, he sure does know how to hide.

At any rate, he knows the debriefing isn't going to be fun.

* * *

 **Wanda - A few hours later, Avengers facility**

* * *

She's listening to every word that they all say as they argue over the thick document in Steve's hands. But she doesn't join in the discussion. She hears them, but her mind is far away. There are images planted in her brain, images of dead people who'd never done anyone any harm, who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Wakandans in Lagos, her parents in Sokovia. What is the difference?

When she was very young, she never wanted to hurt anybody. She just wanted to survive, to be happy. But life was never fated to be that way for her.

Everything that she cared about was taken from her. It started when she was little, when things she loved had to be sold so that they could eat. Then her parents died. Now Pietro is dead, and she is still grieving him, although she has hidden that from everyone.

Well, almost everyone. You can't hide things from an omnipotent being. Oddly enough, she's never minded Vision knowing what she was thinking, because it also means that he knows what not to say to her. Everyone else means well, but sometimes they say things she doesn't want to hear.

Besides Vision, Steve is the only member of the team that seems to really care about her, aside from Clint. But Clint's retired, and Steve is spending less time with her now that she can handle herself competently in the field. So she's found herself leaning on Vision more than on anyone else.

Grief and anger have always been her constant companions. Over the years, they helped fuel her, helped drive her. But guilt is a new and different feeling; whatever Steve says, it is in part her fault that those Wakandans died in Lagos.

So as they all sit and talk, she wars with herself mentally. If it were not for what happened in Lagos, she would never sign. Tony and James Rhodes can't see it; they have never had to be under a government that was too controlling, or they wouldn't even consider it. Americans. They would always rather give up their civil liberty so that they can feel safe. They have not considered the impact of these laws on the rest of the world, for the people that don't live in the ivory towers like Stark and the rest of the Avengers. Ever since S.H.I.E.L.D. was dismantled and their records spilled onto the Internet, the world has known that there are plenty of other enhanced people in the world besides the Avengers, living quietly among their families and friends. With this law, all that would end, and whether they liked it or not all those people would either have to agree to be under the government's close scrutiny 24/7 or else be jailed.

Still, as much as she might hate the idea of the Accords, Lagos did happen, and she is responsible, no matter what Steve says. And yet what if these laws had been in place then? They still would have been in Lagos because Rumlow would still have been there, and she would have done the exact same thing she did then. What difference does signing a piece of paper make? It does not bring back those who have died, and it does not help anyone else in the future that will be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

She looks at Tony, and she sees the same guilt in his eyes that she feels roiling inside her chest but ten times magnified, can practically feel it emanating from him, even without using her power. That's why he will sign, because he feels guilty for the mistakes that he has made.

But the battles will still have to be fought, will they not? Accords or no Accords, there will always be threats to fight. Stark is deceiving himself if he thinks that he wouldn't have completely ignored the laws and built Ultron anyway if they'd been in place then, just like he ignored Bruce's warnings and deceived the rest of the team. He is the kind of man that acts first and thinks later.

Even after the discussion has ended, after Steve and Sam have gone to pack for their flight to London and Stark has gone to inform General Ross of the decision that everyone else has come to, she sits alone in the common room. Every time she feels justified in deciding she should not sign, she remembers the image of the dead Wakandans in Lagos, and feels overwhelmed by her guilt.

* * *

 **Sharon - Two days later, London**

* * *

When Aunt Peggy's mind started to crack, Sharon knew that she was close to the end. Even when her body started to fail, her mind was always as sharp as a whip.

And then...it wasn't.

Aunt Peggy used to hate reminiscing, but when she became bedridden and entered the early stages of dementia, that was almost all she did. Every time Sharon visited her, Peggy would talk at length about her past missions, her married life, World War II...and Steve.

The world has been hearing about Steve ever since his presumed death in the 1940's as a war hero, as the first super-person, as Captain America, as the man in the red, white and blue. But Sharon has grown up at her aunt's knee learning about him as Steve Rogers, a brave, empathetic, loyal man who would always and only do what he thought was right. Of course she'd fallen in love with him a little - okay, a lot; one could hardly do anything else, if they heard the way Aunt Peggy talked about him. At the age most little girls dreamed of Prince Charming, Sharon dreamed of Captain America; he was her hero. But he was no more real to her than Prince Charming; he was an ideal, a character, someone so legendary they might as well be a myth.

But then Steve Rogers was discovered to be alive, which made everything a great deal more confusing; suddenly the man of her childhood dreams and the ideal to which she unconsciously compared any man was not a character in a story, but a real flesh-and-blood person. Sharon still has a vivid memory of being at Aunt Peggy's house one day and seeing Steve show up for a visit. Apparently this happened regularly, but that was yet another thing that slipped Aunt Peggy's mind, so Sharon hadn't known. She'd taken care not to disturb the two of them at the time, made sure Steve hadn't seen her there.

She wasn't sure if it was irony when she was assigned by the S.H.I.E.L.D. director, Nick Fury, to "keep an eye" on Steve when he moved into an apartment in Brooklyn. She lived next door to him for a few months, until that fateful week when Nick Fury died, S.H.I.E.L.D. fell, and HYDRA was uncovered all at once. Maybe it's crazy, but amidst all that, Sharon's clearest memory is that one time Captain America asked her out.

Now she's starting to think irony is a bitch. Aunt Peggy has died, quite suddenly; neither Sharon nor anyone else was aware of her condition worsening, but one morning one of her caretakers found her in her bed, lifeless. Sharon remembers hearing the news of her death and feeling incredibly lost. She loves her parents fiercely, but Aunt Peggy was her inspiration, the reason that she does what she does.

Aunt Peggy was her role model, the one she's looked up to for years. Ever since she was little, when Aunt Peggy would see her, she would take Sharon by the hand and make her sit down and say, "Tell me what happened to you today, Sharon." She told Sharon in later years that she saw the makings of an agent in her, the same spirit that she herself had had as a young girl.

Even days before her death, Aunt Peggy's mind was never completely lost. There was always a time, every now and then, when Sharon would see her return to her normal state of mind. Her eyes would clear, and her hand would grasp Sharon's, and she would always say, "Tell me what happened to you today, Sharon." And she would listen attentively to the answer, sometimes for hours.

One thing that Sharon never discussed with her was her assignment regarding Steve. At first, it was because she couldn't figure out how to say it. But as time went on and, and she had to listen every time Aunt Peggy talked about her latest visit with Steve, she began to feel that it would be incredibly unfair to make her aunt keep that secret from him. She wasn't sure what the two of them talked about during their hours together, but she did know that Aunt Peggy was no longer holding back, that she was finally telling Steve everything, all the things she couldn't say to him for years and years and years.

Now she will have to see his face, speak to him, in just a few hours. The strangeness of the situation is almost too much for her, but so is its inevitability. There is nothing normal about a man being frozen for 70 years and then returning to life, and consequently there can be nothing normal about the way she feels for him.

Now here she is, dressed in black and clutching a small sheath of notes in her hand, sitting in a pew in the empty church, waiting for the hours to pass before the funeral service begins. She will miss Aunt Peggy, but she knows better than to wish her back. Those few times when her aunt had her wits about her, she always expressed her hatred of her confinement in her old, useless body, her desire to be free of it. Sharon wouldn't wish her back in that misery for the world.

* * *

 **Natasha - A few hours later, Vienna**

* * *

A funeral in the morning, a death in the afternoon. She can feel that the evening will bring with it something much, much worse.

Natasha stands alone several feet away from the still smoking building, watching the activity numbly. Miraculously, she was untouched, unhurt. It's been hours since the attack, and everyone can be helped has been helped; and the twelve people who could not, including the king, have all been taken away. And Prince T'Challa - soon to be King T'Challa - is grieving, hurting and angry. And he is on the move.

Her chest is heavy with foreboding. If she was on her own, she probably wouldn't sign the Accords; the very idea of answering to the US government, let alone Ross, rankles her. But the Avengers, such as they are after Clint and Tony's retirement, need to stay together, and Tony's right when he says that they need to pull their punches. Part of that is playing nice for now, and anyway, Tony's not going to change his mind.

But then again, neither will Steve. She should have expected from the beginning that Steve wouldn't sign; he's become incredibly disillusioned and trusts the U.S. government even less than she does herself since S.H.I.E.L.D. fell. But this will not end well. It can't. And both Steve and Tony are too blind to see that. Both Steve's voice on the other end of the line when she mentioned Barnes and he asked if she'd arrest him, and Tony's face when Steve argued against him are stuck in her mind, worrying her. Neither one of them are going to give an inch, and this whole thing is going to turn into a shitstorm.

James Barnes couldn't possibly have picked a worse time to blow up the U.N. if he'd tried.

People are noticing her presence now, recognizing her; she's been in one place for too long. So she walks to her car, showing nothing as she always does, because there are now cameras pointed at her and voices calling to her. She ignores them all, as she always does, and doesn't break countenance until the car door is closed and they're moving away.

* * *

 **Bucky - Several days later, Berlin**

* * *

He never got the fucking plums.

Sometimes, he's noticed, it's easier to focus on the nonsensical things. The little things. Now that he can remember so much of what's happened to him over the last few months (...wait, no, not months...it feels like months, but in reality, it's been decades….) he can remember being strapped to the chair, waiting for the procedure to happen, and thinking of the smallest things because that's what his mind could grab onto to keep him from being swallowed up by his terror. Now here he sits, locked in an impenetrable box, surrounded by guns and men and metal, and so he does it again.

He's got a dirty secret: he's a coward at heart. It's why he's been running for all this time even though he knows Steve has been trying to find him. It's why he never entered a fight, in the old days, without there being a high likelihood of him coming out on top. Steve was his best friend, but he was never like Steve; Steve would stand up to anyone, no matter how big they were.

Anyway. Plums. He likes them, he's discovered. He doesn't remember if he ever ate them back in Brooklyn. There's a difference between eating in his life then and eating in his life now. He chooses what he eats; he doesn't have to worry about not affording it. His first attempt at buying something had been very unsettling - things are so different now; there are fewer people involved in the process and more machines, and things are shinier, and faster. He can't keep up.

He's lost too much damn time. For him, a few months have passed since his presumed death, a few months have been spent in the living hell that was HYDRA; falling from the train is, for him, a memory of only several weeks past. But for the rest of the world, it's been over seven decades.

Sometimes he wonders what it was like for Steve. Was he this disoriented, this surprised, at everything he saw when he woke? What did he think of the world? Did he take it in stride?

Steve, the man he used to know better than he knew himself, is now an enigma. Bucky pictures the man whose face he saw not five minutes ago. What internal battles is that man fighting right now? What does he see in this new, harsh world that they're in now?

Maybe Bucky would know, if he wasn't a coward, if he'd let Steve find him.

Then again, whose fault is it exactly that he's locked in this goddamn box? Maybe if Steve hadn't been there, he could've gotten out faster and that other guy, whoever he was, wouldn't have caught up to him. Bucky knows that isn't true, that even if he hadn't gotten caught that time, he was going to get caught eventually because he was just so tired of running, but he can't help but blame Steve just a little.

* * *

 **Clint - A few hours later, undisclosed location**

* * *

The Accords? Ha.

Nat knew when she called him that he wouldn't sign, that he wouldn't even consider it. If he did, he'd be subjecting his family life to scrutiny, and there's no way he's letting that happen. He'd finally thought that he was done with all this Avenging crap, that he could spend his life with his wife and his children, like a normal husband and father, that they could lead a happy domestic life. He was perfectly fine with that; he didn't miss the glory, like Tony would; nor the battles, like Steve would. Everything that he loved and that he valued was right here, with him.

Well, that was apparently a pipe dream.

Laura is asleep, and Clint's suiting up in his basement. If he's lucky, he'll be back home in a few days. This fourth pregnancy is killing Laura, and so he's decided not to wake her up, as much as he wants to. He leaves her a note and a kiss instead. He hates leaving her and the kids, he always has. But he's needed, and as much as he wants to tell the Avengers to fight their own damn battles without involving him, he has to be there for Wanda. He will always have to be there for her, because there's no other way to repay the debt he owes her brother.

He unlocks his safe in the basement and retrieves his bow and quiver, snapping his string as he does so. "Hello, old friends," he mutters. "Looks like we'll be having some fun again."

"A note, Clint?"

He's losing his edge; he hadn't heard Laura's approach. She steps into the light of the single bulb on the basement ceiling. "Really?"

"Didn't want to wake you," he says, giving her a kiss. "Duty calls."

She gives him that sad half-smile of hers. "So much for being retired, huh?"

"It's Wanda," he says, by way of explanation.

Understanding floods Laura's face; he'd told her all about Pietro's death a long time ago. "Of course," she says. "Of course, you have to go."

"If it were anyone else, Laura, I'd tell them to go fuck themselves."

"No you wouldn't," she says firmly. "And I wouldn't want you to, either. For better or worse, you are one of them. You can retire, but you'll never really be done."

He kisses her again. "Whatever you say, boss. Tell the kids I'm sorry we couldn't go water-skiing."

"I will," says Laura. "Come back safe, honey."

"Of course," he says. "I'll see you in a few days."

"I love you," she says.

"I love you," he answers.


	2. Chapter 2

**Scott Lang - Florida**

* * *

The room's completely dark.

Scott stares around him, breathing hard, having just started out of a deep and dreamless sleep after hearing a loud THUNK from someplace. He's not sure if it was his imagination, a dream, or a real noise made by a real person, but it's always better to be safe than sorry; he gropes around on his nightstand for something to hit someone with, but finds only his phone and a mug that Cassie gave him.

He can't see it in the dark, but with a fond smile he remembers the words on the mug: _All I Need In Life Are Caffeine and Mascara._ Cassie given it to him because she thought "it was cute, and I thought it would make you think of me and smile, Daddy!" Maybe he'd regift that to her on her sixteenth birthday or something. Assuming people were still drinking from mugs by that time. You'd be hard pressed to come up with an invention to replace a drinking vessel, but then again you'd be hard pressed to create a suit that shrank people to the size of ants, so there. One never knew what the future held.

What's he even thinking about? Being up in the middle of the night sure does make him loopy.

THUNK!

Scott grabs the mug. That sure wasn't his imagination. He slides out of bed and moves for the the lightswitch, gripping the mug handle tightly. He's never used a mug as a weapon before, but he's sure he can figure it out. Besides, he doesn't have much of a choice.

The light switches on quite suddenly, and he finds himself standing with an arrow pressed against his chest. The mug shatters on the floor as he raises his hands into the air.

"Hi," says the archer, lowering his bow - and it's none other than Clint Barton himself, the Avenger they call Hawkeye. Scott stares in absolute amazement.

" _Hawkeye?!"_ he gasps.

"When I'm not killing people," says that man, sticking his arrow back in his quiver, "I go by Clint. I gotta admit, I thought you'd have better security or something, whoever you are...Who are you, anyway?"

"Scott Lang," answers Scott eagerly, extending his hand.

"Never heard of him, but nice to meet you," says Clint, with a firm shake in return. "We're going to Germany."

"We're...um, excuse me?"

"I _said,_ we're going to Germany," says Clint loudly, as if Scott is deaf, or maybe mentally impaired. "We gotta pick someone else up on the way, but we need you."

"Who's we? Who needs me?" Scott asks, stumbling over his words in his haste. "Is this about what happened at the Avengers facility? Because I am so, so sorry -"

He stops talking at the look on Clint's face.

"You were at the _Avengers facility_?" he gasps. "Now we really gotta talk. You know the location of that place is classified, right?"

"It was an accident," Scott said quickly, taking a step forward. In his eagerness he forgets about the mug he dropped on the floor, and a small piece of it drives itself into the arch of his foot.

" _Ow!_ " he howls. "God, that hurt. I can't be Ant-Man anymore."

"You can't be _what_?"

"Ant-Man," Scott echoes. "Wait. Are you here because you need Scott Lang, or because you need Ant-Man? Because if you're here for Scott Lang, I've never even heard of Ant-Man before."

Clint looks at the ceiling and mutters something Scott can't hear. "Bandage that up and come on," he says aloud. "We can't wait any longer."

* * *

 **Peter Parker - New York**

* * *

"This is amazing," Peter says. " _This is amazing!_ "

"Try it out," says Tony Stark, ( _Tony Stark!_ ) leaning back against his couch and massaging his forehead. "See what you think."

They're someplace, Peter isn't quite sure where - Mr. Stark called it a classified location and didn't say what it was exactly - and Peter Parker just suited up in a _Stark-designed_ suit. Ever since Mr. Stark showed up at his Queens apartment a few hours ago, albeit strangely bruised and banged up, Peter's been high on adrenaline and admittedly low on common sense. But look, who wouldn't be?! He's wearing something born of the mind of Anthony Stark, and he'll be headed with him to Germany soon. He's still not exactly sure what he'll be doing in Germany, but really, does it matter?

"It's amazing!" Peter tells him again, fervently. "It feels incredible, Mr. Stark! I can't even begin to th-"

Tony's left eyebrow darts toward his hairline. "See that open window, Parker?"

"Yeah," says Peter, glancing at it out of the corner of his eye, "but -"

"Swing out of it, use your webby stuff or whatever. Try the suit out. Just stop _talking_ at me, for God's sake." Stark closes his eyes as he speaks, rubbing his forehead and eyeing an unopened bottle of scotch on the corner table.

"Okay, sir," says Peter quickly. "Whatever you say!"

* * *

 **Wanda** - **Somewhere in Germany, several hours later**

* * *

"So what's the plan exactly?" Wanda asks Clint.

They're in the white 12-passenger van Clint rented, on their way to meet Steve, Sam and Barnes. Scott Lang, the man Steve instructed Clint to recruit, is fast asleep in the backseat, after having talked Wanda and Clint's ears off on the flight from the US.

"Why exactly does he need us?"

Clint shrugs, eyes on the road. "There's a Quinjet at this airport we're headed to. Steve's trying to get there so that he can fly someplace, and he has to be at this place so that he can stop some guy from releasing some more Buckys into the wild."

Wanda stares at him. "More Buckys?"

Clint nods, glancing at her. "Yup."

"I thought he was the only one. If there are more, why have we never heard of them, or is Bucky not responsible for all the Winter Soldier appearances?"

Clint shrugs. "HYDRA's leaked files state that James Barnes was the Winter Soldier in every known assassination. These others are maybe not exactly like him. But they're more programmed assassins like him, except crazier, or something. I don't really understand, I'm sure Steve will explain once we see him."

"Crazier than Bucky?" asks Wanda, trying to think it through. "What does Steve need us for?"

Clint looks grim.

"He wouldn't say, exactly," he says. "But I've never known anyone with better intuition that Steve when it comes to this kind of thing. If he called us, that means that he thinks he needs us, and if he thinks he needs us than it's serious."

"Why couldn't we have flown a Quinjet to him, instead of flying commercially?" Wanda asks. "That way he wouldn't have to go to this airport to get it?"

Clint raises a skeptical eyebrow at her. "Look, you totally dominated Mr. Sharpie back at the facility, I acknowledge that. But there's no way we could have gotten a Quinjet out of there without him stopping us, plus Rhodey might have tried to come to the rescue, and blah blah blah. And there's nowhere else other than the facility that we could have gotten a Quinjet. Trust me, Steve thought all this through."

Wanda doesn't answer. She studies her hands, lying still in her lap; in her head, she can still see Vision's face when she turned on him, and though an android cannot have facial expressions she could have sworn he looked grieved for her.

Over the past few hours, she's been thinking, and she's come to realize something. As an omniscient being, Vision has more _knowledge_ than anyone in the world could ever hope to possess at one time. But that does not mean he knows the future, and it does not mean that he is any wiser than a human. Perhaps he can predict it better than most, but Wanda has always believed that human intuition is more valuable than artificial intelligence (although that was, admittedly, before she'd met Stark). It was an algorithm created by an artificial intelligence that made S.H.I.E.L.D. think that they had the right to kill people they thought would become dangerous. (Yes, it was a HYDRA plan under the surface, but the people at S.H.I.E.L.D. had agreed to it).

As much as he might care about her, Vision cannot know what is best for her. If people choose to see a monster when they look at her, she cannot change their minds no matter how long she hides behind the excuse that they might. It is always unwise to make a decision based on fear - in this case, fear of the unknown, fear of rejection. That is really why she is here, by Clint's side. That is why she will fight for Steve. Not because she disagrees with Tony and the Accords, or because she hates being locked up (although both are the case), but because if she were to go the opposite way, and choose to stay locked in the compound and sign the Accords and go with whatever it is they want from her, she would be making that decision based on fear and fear alone.

She'd wanted this power that she now has for all the wrong reasons - revenge, hatred - but now that she actually has it, she can remedy all of that. She cannot be afraid any longer of the damage that she might cause, or the idea that people might hate her for what she is. For better or worse, she has her power, and she has become whatever that power makes her. She will always be that, and because she's the only one with that power, she has the responsibility to use it and to do what she can to save as many people as she can.

No one can defend the world against the new, rising threats better than she and the other Avengers. She understands that maybe better than anyone else on the team; she knows that she and Pietro were not the only people von Strucker experimented on, and that there are other enhanced threats in the world, and when they turn up, it will always be her responsibility to stop them, _because_ she has this power, because she _can_ stop them, and that any law that tries to tie her hands or take away her judgement in that regard is wrong.

So she will fight, and she will face whatever is coming. She will do what she is meant to do.

* * *

 **Sharon - En route to Saxony, a few hours later**

* * *

In the years following his disappearance and preceding his rediscovery, the world had come to see Captain America one way: as a man who was a firm believer in the establishment, the government - after all, his name was _Captain America._ But Aunt Peggy had always painted a different picture of Steve, for Sharon and for anyone else who would listen. Sharon has been thinking about both Steve and Aunt Peggy almost nonstop the last few hours, and her picture of him as a man both from Aunt Peggy's eyes and her own is quite clear now.

He never believed in power structures just because they were power structures; he believed in them because he thought they were right. And if at any point he didn't think they were right, he'd go against them. His first official mission after he'd become Captain America was, Aunt Peggy had explained to Sharon, completely against orders. And he'd done it anyway, to save his friend and all those other men.

That was mostly why Sharon had given Steve the information on Barnes, because she'd heard Aunt Peggy talk about how much he meant to Steve. That's why she'd taken his shield and his gear, along with that of Sam Wilson, from the station in Berlin and was driving it to him now.

But there's another reason, one that has nothing to do with Aunt Peggy for once: after all, Sharon's conscience is the highest authority that she needs to answer to, not the CIA or anyone else, and her conscience is telling her this is the right thing to do. She believes in him, in everything he stands for. She suspects that one or another of her higher-ups is onto her, and there's no telling what's going to happen to her if that's the case, but it doesn't matter, because this is one of those things that she can't compromise on.

For better or worse, Sharon Carter has put her trust completely in Steve Rogers, and she doesn't regret it at all, not even a little.

* * *

 **James Rhodes - En route to Leipzig/Halle Airport, a few minutes later**

* * *

It's not a long ride from the station in Berlin to the airport in Saxony, but it sure does feel that way.

According to the people that followed Sharon Carter, that's where Steve is headed, so that's where they will apprehend him and whoever he's recruited. They've got a solid team, Rhodes thinks, glancing around the jet. Tony's sitting silently by the window; Natasha is flying the jet (what can't that woman do?) Also present is King T'Challa of Wakanda, dressed in his black woven vibranium suit with the mask resting on his knee (Ross doesn't think it's a good idea for him to come after what happened in Bucharest, but he can't stop him); the oddly dressed person from Tony brought with him from Queens who still hasn't said anything (Spider-Man, Tony calls him - Rhodes doesn't know his real name, hasn't seen his face, and doesn't want to, because this is highly illegal and the less he knows the better), and the Vision, sans civilian clothing. Everyone's suited up, with the exception of Rhodes and Tony, and ready for action.

Tony is quieter than Rhodes has ever seen him. This conflict has clearly been taking its toll on him emotionally, as has his separation from Pepper. He probably hadn't realized exactly how much he leaned on her until he couldn't lean on her any longer. By his own acknowledgement, Rhodes knows he is no replacement for her, even though he's let Tony know time and time again that he'll be there for him.

Rhodes understands Tony better than anyone right now. He might have everyone in this jet on his side, but Tony's the one who is singlehandedly trying to take on the responsibility of this mess on his shoulders, including all of Steve's latest fuck-ups and the resulting split between the Avengers. He's the one who tried repeatedly to get Steve to sign without a fight, the one who wanted to bring in Steve himself because he was afraid someone else would hurt them. Everytime Rhodes really thinks about it, he's pissed at Steve for not just standing down for once.

Steve may be right as far as his argument goes. The Avengers are needed to save people, that's a given. But who's going to save the Avengers from themselves? Who's going to step in the next time Tony has a brilliant idea that he thinks will save the world - and he will - and keep him in check? It's a joke to think that the other Avengers will stop him - they did a pretty poor job of when Ultron was created _and_ when Vision was created. Lucky for Tony, Vision didn't turn out evil or psychotic, but what if he had? The whole world would be destroyed by now, because the Avengers operated independently. And as for Barnes - well, he's an _assassin._ That man deserves to be six feet under for everything he's done.

Steve is a good man, and he's only doing what he's doing because he thinks it's right, but maybe he's too idealistic. Maybe that's blinding him to the real truth about this issue. He has never been the sort of man to back down because of pressure, or to do _anything_ he doesn't think is explicitly right; Rhodes can respect that, but sometimes a little compromise is necessary. Things didn't have to come to _this._

"10 more minutes," Natasha says from the front. "Get ready, team."

* * *

 **Sam -** **Leipzig/Halle Airport, same time**

* * *

Sam tugs a strap over his shoulder, clicking it into place over his chest and feeling the familiar weight of his pack settle against his back. Beside him, Bucky's pulling on his gloves and Steve is fastening his helmet under his chin. Clint snaps his bow, and little red sparks dance off of Wanda's hands. Scott Lang is dressed in his weird red ant-suit and is sitting in the ground waiting for everyone else, helmet in hand.

Steve's face is set into a hard, grim expression. Sam hasn't seen that look on his face in a while, but he knows what it means - Steve is getting ready for a fight that he isn't looking forward to. Steve is an enigma to him when it comes to fighting - he hates killing and he avoids using lethal weapons whenever he can, yet he charges into every fight as if it's calling his name.

These Accords are absolute bullshit. Sam hasn't said it because he knows that Steve respects Tony, and he respects that. But it's absolutely the stupidest idea he's ever heard of, and both Tony and Ross' arguments in favor of the Accords are incredibly weak. Do any of the Avengers REALLY think that Tony is actually going to follow any of these rules? Tony does whatever the hell he wants whenever the fit seizes him, and his guilt is not going to change that. That woman, Charlie Spencer's mother, made it a whole hell of a lot worse. He's sorry that he lost her, but doesn't she realize that Charlie would have died just as surely if they hadn't been there? Along with - oh, just the entire world?

And the footage Ross showed of the disasters for which the Avengers had been present was just the cherry on top of the cake, intended to manipulate them into giving into their guilt. First, New York - that time the Avengers saved the world only from Loki and his minions, but from the government dropping a nuke on New York. Washington D.C. - the one time they saved millions of people from being gunned down by HYDRA. The list went on and on and on.

The bottom line was, without the Avengers' actions, the battles would still have had to be fought, and the consequences would have been a thousand times bigger than what they were. No one deserved to die, but they just couldn't save everyone, and the Accords would not help all those people. Not even close. Sam can't see any sense of the Accords, no matter how he looks at it. Vision's 'equation' only convinced him further - if the number of enhanced threats is growing, then why they hell should they back up and let the government decide if the Avengers are going to fight them? How else are they planning on dealing with them? There is no decision to make, no council that could save the world from collateral damage.

And he's not the only one that thinks this. Almost all these people are here because they agree with him. Wanda is very young, but she's been through a lifetime of grief and pain and they have aged her; she is more than capable of making a decision about this. Clint is protecting his family's anonymity. Barnes has no choice (although if he did, Sam thinks he might almost agree with the Accords. That man is hiding decades of guilt and grief under a relatively calm facade). The only loose thread here is Scott - he doesn't exactly seem to know what he's getting himself into, and Sam almost wishes he hadn't suggested that Steve call him, but they need as many people as they can get. Assuming Ross decides to send the official Avengers - aka the UN's new lackeys - after them, they'll have Stark and the whole kit and caboodle on their tail.

"Ready?" says Steve, picking up his shield.

Sam looks at him, remembering that moment two years ago when Steve stood in the control room at S.H.I.E.L.D. and addressed the entire compound, his speech stirring and full of conviction. Today is different; there is no speech in Steve now. There is only grim determination.

"Ready," he says with a nod.

"Ready," says Lang, springing to his feet.

"Ready," says Wanda.

"Ready," says Clint.

They all look at Barnes, who's looking at the pistol in his hand. He says nothing for a long moment; then he pulls the cartridge out of the pistol and drops it on the ground, crushing it under his foot.

"Ready," he says.

* * *

 **This story was revamped a little and will finally be updated next week. I got around to watching the film for the second time now that it's on DVD. Thank you for reading! I'd love your feedback.**


End file.
